Dental drills are generally used during a surgical procedure to create a bore in a mandible or maxilla suitable for receiving a dental implant or other dental device. Certain surgical procedures require drilling multiple bores having a variety of depths for receiving different sized dental implants or devices. To create these multiple sized bores, markings may be made on the drill bit by the practitioner to indicate the depth to stop forward motion of the bit. This, however, is often inaccurate. Otherwise a practitioner often uses multiple drill bits of varying lengths so that each drill bit provides a unique drilling depth. In one case, the bore is drilled until a part of the drill reaches the bone around the opening to the bore. This requires the practitioner to interchange multiple different drill bits with the drill handpiece during the surgical procedure. Such a process can be both difficult and time consuming for the practitioner and may increase the overall time necessary to complete the surgical procedure.
Optionally a separate stop is connected to the drill bit to stop the advancement of the drill bit. For the separate stop, a sleeve is mounted on the drill bit to create the desired bit length. Either sleeves of different lengths are provided where each length corresponds to a desired drill depth or a single sleeve is cut to a desired length before mounting it on the drill bit.
In yet another conventional example, an adjustable collar is set to a specific axial location along the drill bit, which corresponds to a particular drill depth. The drill bit may be advanced into bone until the adjustable collar abuts against surrounding bone at the entrance to the bore, thereby preventing further forward axial movement of the drill bit. The practitioner may drill a bore having a different depth by reconfiguring the adjustable collar to a different axial location along the drill bit corresponding to the different bore depth. In this example, the practitioner adjusts the axial location of the adjustable collar relative to the drill bit by using a tool to unfasten a screw that extends through the collar to the drill bit. Once the screw is unfastened, the adjustable collar can be moved to a new location, and the screw then re-tightened to the drill bit with the tool. This process is time consuming and inconvenient. Such screws are susceptible to damage, contamination, and/or being dropped while changing the position of the collar. Thus, a stopping mechanism is desired that is quickly and conveniently adjusted to different positions on a drill bit.